Zohar Weiman-Kelman - 'Queer Expectations: A Genealogy of Jewish Women's Poetry'

Join us for a conversation with Zohar Weiman-Kelman, assistant professor in the Department of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, about the author's new book, 'Queer Expectations: A Genealogy of Jewish Women's Poetry.' Bringing together Jewish women’s poetry from the late nineteenth century, the interwar period, and the 1970s and 1980s, Weiman-Kelman takes readers on a boundary-crossing journey through works in English, Yiddish, and Hebrew, setting up encounters between writers of different generations, locations, and languages. 'Queer Expectations' highlights genealogical lines of continuity drawn by authors as diverse as Emma Lazarus, Kadya Molodowsky, Leah Goldberg, Anna Margolin, Irena Klepfisz, and Adrienne Rich. These poets push back against heteronormative imperatives of biological reproduction and inheritance, opting instead for connections that twist traditional models of gender and history. Looking backward in queer ways enables new histories to emerge, intervenes in a troubled present, and gives hope for unexpected futures. Refreshments will follow and signed books will be available. The event is sponsored by the Yiddish Program and the Joyce Z. and Jacob Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies.